Studies & exercises

This is a really useful collection of studies for anyone who wants to get really secure in their use of different positions. None involve any position changing, but instead focus entirely on a single position at a time. I strongly recommend this approach for really developing confidence in second position in particular, which so easily gets overlooked. The other books in his 100 Etudes, Op. 32, are also very useful, especially those for position-changing and for double stops.

Working through the first few pages of these studies, getting completely secure with every position in sequence, is a really good idea for anybody working at grades 4-5, tackling positions beyond 3rd. It's so easy to find yourself able to play the odd scale and passage of music up in 5th position, but to be terrified of 2nd or 4th - and there's no good reason for it to end up that way.

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Book 1 is shown here - it's a very useful book indeed for those in the early stages of learning, who want to get the basics of their technique in place in a methodical way. The other books are available via the IMSLP source link below.